Palate Cleansers

That Stack Of Books with Nancy Pearl and Steve Scher - The House of Podcasts

Nancy Pearl, Steve Scher, Katy Sewall

Recorded at The Bryant Corner Café in Seattle.

With so much turmoil in the world, sometimes a reader just wants to reset before plunging back into the intellectual fray. Nancy Pearl is calling the books you might turn to as palate cleansers.

Pretty quickly, though, the readers around the big table at the Bryant Corner Café started putting their own spin on the notion.

First off, though, mark your calendar. Don Delillo has a new book coming out May of this year. Nancy Pearl says “Zero K” is a cause for celebration.

Palate Cleansers From Nancy

The author Elinor Lipman. Nancy loves her books. She calls the frothy. She rereads “The Inn at Lake Divine” and “The Way Men Act” from time to time. She finds the writing appealing in all her books.

Leslie turns to her favorite mystery writers including, “Second Watch,” by J.A. Jance.

Other Palate Cleansers Mentioned This Episode

Janwillem van de Wetering and his characters Grijpstra and de Grier.

Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahöö and their character Martin Beck. Nancy says “The Laughing Policeman” is one of their best.

Bob says any good poem is a palate cleaners. In non-fiction, anything by Bill Bryson is a palate cleanser and in fiction, anything by P.G. Wodehouse.

Ros likes Stanley Kunitz and his book of poems about gardening. “The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden”

Tom cleanses his palate with The Ascent of Man with Jacob Bronowski and Civilization by Kenneth Clarke.

Christopher likes the entertaining British writer Professor David Lodge and the American writer Jonathan Tropper.

Those two authors prompted Nancy to recommend Jonathan Coe. She likes his novel “The Rotter’s Club.”

Rita says her palate cleanser is Haruki Murakami. Everyone's palate is different.

Keith turns to Bernard Cornwell, Margaret Atwood or Donald Westlake.

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